“I made a mistake, Aria.” I meet her hard look with a penitent one. “I wish like hell I could take it back, but I can’t. But I can promise that it’s one I won’t be repeating. I would never hurt Lark or anyone else like that again. Not ever.”
Aria reaches up, gently pulling her earring from Felicity’s fist before the baby can draw it into her mouth. “Maybe you can convince her that’s true Mason, but I’m a little more familiar with people who swear they’re not going to make the same mistake twice. And guess what?” The baby starts to fuss, but Aria shushes her with a tummy rub and a bounce on her hip. “They always make the same mistake. Always. Sometimes three or four or five times. All that giving them another chance does is make you feel like a fool.”
“I’m sorry you’ve been through that, but—”
“But nothing,” Aria says, the harsh note creeping back into her tone. “I learned my lesson the hard way, but I hope to God my sister won’t have to. I’m not on your side, Mason, so you can stop trying to win me over. I don’t need your favors, and Lark needs you back in her life like an octopus needs a hang glider.”
I open my mouth, but before I can speak, I hear Lark’s footsteps pounding down the stairs. A second later, she’s at the door, her filmy black cover-up swirling around her legs as she breezes by Aria with only a slight pause to kiss the top of Felicity’s head.
“Ready to go?” she asks in a breathless rush, her brown eyes searching mine.
I force a smile. “Ready.” I glance back at Aria. “See you later, Aria.”
“Not if I can help it,” she says.
Lark frowns, but before she can turn around, Aria closes the door with a firm thunk.
Lark sighs. “Sorry about that,” she whispers as we start down the walk toward my car. “She’s just…protective. And cranky. Crankily protective.”
“It’s all right. I understand. Sounds like she’s going through a hard time. I can be patient… Wait for her to come around.”
Lark hesitates at the end of the walk before turning to me with a panicked expression.
Before she can speak, I cup her face in my hands, brushing my thumb across her lips to keep her protest from entering the world. “We’re going fishing, and I’m going to answer every question you can think to ask me,” I say softly. “And then we’re going to talk about what I need to do to start regaining your trust. Think it over while I drive. Whatever you need, I’ll do it. I’ll learn to stand on my head and juggle flaming bowling pins if that’s what it takes.”
Her lips part. “All right,” she whispers. “I’ll think about it.”
“Good.” I smile.
“I’m not saying I’ll come up with an answer, let alone an easy answer,” she warns. “Certainly not something as easy as upside down fire juggling, but…”
But that’s a step in the right direction, I think as I help her into the car and trot around to the driver’s side, ignoring the redhead peering out the March’s front window with a frown on her face.
I’ll have to win Aria over eventually—the March sisters are closer than most and I don’t want to be a source of friction between them—but for now I’m focused on Lark.
If she can’t get past what I did, it doesn’t matter if the town of Bliss River declares me a hero and holds a parade in my honor, I’ll still be out of luck.
Chapter 9
Lark
It’s a beautiful day—hot enough for the breeze to feel delicious, cool enough that the sun warms without summoning a sweat. Spring is my favorite season in Georgia, but I know perfect spring days like this are numbered. Soon, it will be so hot and humid that my neck will be perpetually damp and my hair frizzed into a blond fluff ball until cooler weather comes back around in the fall.
I lie in the plastic recliner Mason has rigged into one side of his old boat, the sun warm on my legs, a bottle of lemonade cold in my hand, and the crisp mineral smell of the water a sweet prickle at my nose.
If anyone else were sitting across from me, I’d be drifting off into a catnap with a smile on my face, thankful for a little taste of paradise.
Instead, my body is humming, every inch of my skin sizzling with awareness as Mason’s eyes move between where his red and white float bobs in the water, and my bikini clad self. I hunted for one of my old one-piece suits, but the only thing I found was a two-piece from when I was nineteen and still living at home.
I threw it on and dashed, not wanting to leave Mason alone with Aria for too long for fear of bloodshed. But now I wish I’d taken the time to hunt down that one piece I know is hiding somewhere in my old room.